i am blatantly and undeniably a total Homer. On this Post i will Speak as a Homer and be most favorable to New York City
I love living here, not just because you hear every language spoken on earth including Pig Latin when you walk through midtown, but also because no one cares at ALL what the Hell you are all about. Dressed Like Darth Vader? Don’t expect a second look. Men in Daisy Duke shorts holding hands bother you? 3 times on every block. I’m pretty proud of my town.
Super Storm Sandy, the 9-11 Attacks, all absorbed and overcome by the

The NYPD is one of the most professional; law enforcement agencies in the world.

toughest, coolest people on Earth, the average New Yorker. When I get a chance to go abroad people want to confront me cause I’m a “yank”. The response? ”yank this, I’m from New York” instantly changes the conversation. Everyone has been or wants to come here. It’s a World City like London, Berlin, Amsterdam or Prague. If you went to Papua New Guinea and spoke to the average person you can bet they heard of New York. Hell, every disaster ever features a lone survivor in a New York Yankee cap (which is why I keep mine handy).

Comparison and Analysis
If you live her in New York and are intolerant your life will be sheer Hell. Everything would offend you. Glen Beck moved to some part of Teabagistan because he was SO intolerant people started to take offense at him constantly being offended and he became ostracized. That says a lot. Being intolerant is nearly an anathema here. Blatant bigotry is about the only way short of shoving people on the subway to get any reaction from a New Yorker.
We hate jerks. Wanna see something really funny? If you happen to be there when Bill O’Riley is at the Yankee game when they put him on the big screen he gets a chorus of hateful boos and cat calls. This is because he is intolerant. He’s also from Long Island, a place where almost every single celebrity is an embarrassing jerk. Rosie O’Donnell, Sean Hannity, Lindsay Lohan, that Nancy Grace looking fake psychic who calls herself a medium despite being an extra large on her thinnest day, the list of offensive Long Islanders goes on and on. There are also a bunch of talentless Baldwin’s embarrassing their only talented family member, Alec. Like Jerky Steven Baldwin who I would run into every time I went to my pot guy for like 3 years. He would just keep lording over us that he was going to be a rich actor like Alec. I was in no way shocked when he embezzled money from his charity and later tried to get people to send him money so he could be a freaky self-ordained Creflo Dollar sort of minister. It’s like a little chunk of Florida somehow migrated to our beautiful terminal moraine.
I think I speak for most of my friends and neighbors here when I say I think we benefit from the diversity. Some of my closest friends simply aren’t white or necessarily straight. They don’t come with any label but ‘friend’.
One of the things that enables this is a pretty damn good police force. Possibly the nations best. Sure there are definitely some awful policies like “Stop and Frisk” but they will also toss you in jail if you commit a Hate Crime In New Orleans their poorly regarded police force all fled the Unknown in the face of Hurricane Katrina. Not one

The Freedom Tower. A poor substitute for our iconic Twin Towers

New York City Cop hesitated to run towards near certain death when we were attacked that Tuesday morning in 2001. This is a big part of why new Yorker’s are more tolerant. They know that guilty people will likely be convicted, that the wheels of justice are somewhat more well oiled than in most other cities. Just look at Los Angeles. Their police hate the citizens and the citizens hate the police. Roughly every 10 years a major anti-police riot erupts due to lack of professional policing.
So what’s my peeve? I have a grudge against a small segment of our population. It’s a segment of population which remains pretty low everywhere but seems to be higher the further you get from a major city. Intolerant and ignorant people who live on the outskirts of New York and other parts of America where a major metropolis is too far away to exert any cultural influence.

The Connection between Tolerance and the Proximately to a Major Metropolis

While there are still plenty of reasonable exurbanites the intolerant ones have the biggest mouths. They are all over Social Media. They have no agenda, they simply are intolerant. So intolerant and frightened that I have gotten used to being labeled gay simply because I endorse the right for everyone to do whatever they want in a darkened room with a willing partner. Hey, it’s not my thing but I will defend this right to the end. Not because I am gay, which I am not, but because I just HATE small minded people. Unreasonable fears that being gay or smoking weed or whatever is somehow a contagious and dangerous plague and they are destined to be accosted by gay folk who are intolerant. From all appearances aside from the self despising Log Cabin Republicans (just one sub divison of the infamous Republican Cargo Cult) it seems the majority of people of all orientations are not suffering mentally with a deep inner disconnect between their orientation and dignity(Thankfully the conflicted people have many more options now).

The 1992 LA Riot. A direct result of a terrible Police Force creating intolerance

New York nor any other major metropolis doesn’t generate gay people, nature does that. It merely attracts people who have been discriminated against because it’s known as a tolerant place. After being discriminated against most people tend to hate and avoid becoming intolerant themselves.
My year in Florida was a real eye opener. I couldn’t believe the lack of worldliness displayed. Cops drinking in uniform and jumping into their squad cars obviously over the limit was a common sight. No one looked twice. Anyone in New York would have been outraged and reported this behavior.Think about it. This is an armed cop in uniform. What if something goes down in America’s second most violent city? Like THAT cop will have the judgment to do his job? Sure he may be off duty but he’s obviously a cop and your go to guy if something happens while he’s in your establishment. Unlike violent crime on the streets the cop can’t simply ignore it or wait a half hour to show up. He’s right there when it happens. How can someone so dumb as to not so much as keep a polo shirt in the squad car when they head out boozing so as not to disgrace the uniform even GET the job of cop? This is one thing that should NOT be tolerated. It shows how little regard the local authorities have for the public. How George Zimmerman managed to not get hired as a cop is actually a shock.
Maybe it’s because aside from being stupid he would have set a bad example by actually attempting to do his job? He would have sucked at it but that’s the norm in Orlando and Sanford anyway. I am not praising this murderer, I am hoping for justice for Trayvon Martin. I am just saying the guy became a self appointed cop for free and did it with misguided zeal. Imagine where some education, police training and tolerance would have taken him. Right now the lack of those things may well get him slipped the Needle Of Justice in Florida, which is in a sick competition with Texas to have the most executions, worst cops, most insane gun laws and highest teen pregnancy rates in America
Drink in uniform in New York your off the Force. Aside from letting Casey Anthony walk, the unprofessional police force is as likely to frame an innocent guy as they are to catch a guilty one. If they are a minority their chances of beating the system, no matter how innocent is remote.
Everyone is packing heat all the time. Florida has one million concealed caryy permits alone. I am not that into guns but the random and violent nature of crime in Orlando was truly frightening. Because the Orlando Police Department as well as the PD in neighboring Sanford are more a threat to the average citizen, through poor response time and their “fuck it” attitude, I can’t really argue. #1 in abandoned children and nestled between Camden, NJ and Flint, Michigan as the 2nd most violent city in America, I guess it makes sense. Why have all those

Murderer George Zimmerman, note even the cop in the picture is texting. Is it any surprise idiot vigilante’s think they can do a better job?

overpaid government workers when you can have do it yourself law enforcement with laws like “Stand Your Ground”? Another way to say stand your ground would be “No witness, no murder.”
Then there are people walking around with tattoos from Leviticus condemning homosexuality. 2 verses later it says tattoos are a mortal sin. Selective reading of the Bible and selective reading of the Constitution and Bible are backed up by schools filled with semi qualified core of teachers and a mass of permanent subs don’t really inspire the best learning and the first casualty is the Analytical Skills we need to truly understand the world. For example- 9 hours to maybe get a chance to vote? THAT’S what you get as an American Citizen? My hurricane ravaged city had all votes counted by 2 am. This despite a complete lack of basic utilities like electricity. Somehow Florida managed to finish just about a week ago. Is there any doubt that the small minded governor and his inhuman Cylon supporters are more concerned that the presidential election is going to be decided by a guy THEY chose beforehand….again. The reason again is Intolerance. Fear of ex Republicans Cubans as well as moderate thinking voters from the Caribbean, Mexico and pretty much anywhere else where people fulfilled their dream of being one of the best, an American.
Enter the Tea Party and their insipid poison. Hateful policies that included idiocy so bad that Christian Slater, who must have done 20 feature films, was not recognized even with all his ID. This is willful ignorance. Recently Slater received

Christian Slater’s Ballot Rejection letter. I guess they will say he’s obscure and no one recognized him?

word his ballot was rejected. The Board of Elections, whose complex ballots, which allegedly take 45 minutes to certify apparently rejected the ballot because the idiot reading it mistook his signature as reading “Christiana DiSilva”. Think they thought he was a latino woman and targeted his vote? If you have a better answer leave me a comment. Not disgusted yet? Read on.
The militant and completely psychotic Anti Choice movement, despite overt violent acts and accosting people all day on the street are never subject to police supervision. This to me is because the already undereducated person whose intellect has been severely inhibited due to substandard schools. This is a great payback for the Republicans who destroyed their states public school system. The real intent was republicans hate to give anything away for free when there’s ANY chance of charging for it. This combined with Governor Rick Scott’s lies and insane social policies. Theres a REASON social studies textbooks are boring, social studies is the only subject most are required to take all 4 years of High School. It’s also the only class where you develop critical and analytical skills. Killing and rewriting history with preposterous concepts like re-branding the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression.
People in Florida may have gotten screwed by their education system, but they aren’t stupid and they aren’t all a bunch of racist Yay-hoos distilling moonshine deep in the swamp. Those people do exist but if they are in any way political they usually default to Ron paul, probably because they hate themselves. Making Ron Paul president would be like having an entire nation commit suicide by cop, but that’s another post. Most Floridians are newly minted Democrats willing to stand in line for 8-10 hours to get a chance to vote.
Why? Because tolerance is spreading. The granting of rights to the LGBT community

This shirt is shocking, not because of the message, but because its all spelled correctly

are not an offensive idea to most Americans. People have seen that this is no threat to any other kind of marriage. The Tea Bagger talking points ring hollow. Their lies and misinformation could only be maintained for so long. The truth confronted people every day. Truths like that life was a little worse every one of those miserable 8 years when future failed presidential candidate and then Governor Jeb Bush threw their votes away and made his dimwitted brother president despite being soundly defeated. The wars and the recession that has been a hallmark of both George H.W. Bush and the completely incompetent George W Bush administrations didn’t help the world to be a better place. Later it was proven that no invasions were EVER necessary. It was stoking the flames of intolerance that ignited by the preventable 9-11 Attacks.
History shows us that successive generations are progressively more reasonable. Still, every once in a while it skips a generation and we retrograde into stupidity for a time. This time it was the aptly named “Me generation” now in their 60’s that just didn’t get it. The same people who were too selfish to serve their country in what they called an Immoral War were the same ones who showed up dressed as 18th Century Patriots bitching that they are the last generation to deserve Medicare. They conveniently changed their positions on war when they passed out of military age. They lost all compassion as they luxuriated in the prosperity they inherited and have all but destroyed.
The good news- These people are old and their sick ideas will die with them.

This guy is untypically angry for a pot head; possibly because he’s sick of his connections going to jail?

stipulates that pot is not be smoked in public, but don’t expect that to stop anyone as the police policy is a verbal warning. What Better time than now to review our nations massively misguided and completely failed drug policies than now? Today the war on drugs took a strange turn. It’s not unlike when World War 1 nearly ground to a halt years ahead of schedule when average soldiers from both sides were so disdainful of the war they basically formed gentleman’s agreements and stopped fighting. In this case that agreement manifests in the fact that you only need to

ironically all this confiscated pot will be burned. if it had been found a few days later its debatable whether or not the unfortunate grower would really be in much trouble

abstain from pot long enough to make ‘good pee’ top get a job. It also manifests is a quiet agreement among most Americans that your just not going to rat out your pot guy or your pot dealing neighbors adult son so long as he gives you a decent count and doesn’t turn your street into a pot drive-through. Call it indifference or willful ignorance, the fact is people just have other things to worry about then getting involved in a police investigation that will likely result in nothing more than a pissed off neighbor who has been inconvenienced by a ticket who now hates your guts for being a tool for the man. I have experienced completely legal recreational marijuana use in my trips to Amsterdam. It’s a real thrill the first few times a cop nods a polite hello as you blaze away at a sidewalk café in the Red Light District. After you get over the learned desire to run for your life it’s a lot of fun. Now that it’s legal in some places shouldn’t it be legal everywhere? Are people in Washington State any more or less American that everyone else? How can one carry an ounce of weed in a few feet and suddenly go from citizen to criminal or vice versa without actually traveling to another nation? Medical Marijuana is subject to equally ridiculous laws, but do provide a small amount of protection for prescription holders who commute. Your cool in the airport and I would suppose the train station, but then you’re totally subject to local laws.

The War on Drugs is a complete failure. First a generation of Reagan era teens found out just say no was so far over the top that they ignored the entire message to the point where it became a joke. The “Just Say No” approach was simple. Don’t try drugs and there’s no chance you’ll get hooked. Pretty cut and dry. This sort of extreme view is totally understandable if you’re talking about crack, heroin or Angel Dust, as for, Pot, not so much. While the “Just Say No” Policy seemed infinitely

A Modern Day “just Say No” graphic from a hilariously misguided page on the Punjabi Police Site. Worth the click

sensible it didn’t jibe with reality. Drug use of all kinds shot up during the 1980’s and is in some ways a hallmark of its successes and excesses. An 8-ball holding Gordon Gecko with a faked out blonde in a speeding Porsche and an AMEX Black Card are more the image of the 80’s than any image of upstanding drug free family values and worry free prosperity the Republican’s, especially Cargo Cult Republicans, think should come to mind in a discussion of the halcyon days of Ronald Reagan where no drug users were rare and raging. It was way too simple to be true and ultimately self-defeating. From the first puff of the first joint ever came the instant realization this was no ‘gateway” into a life of crime and drugs. Overdosing is unheard of and hangovers and calories associated with acceptable alcohol just don’t exist. Add to that that people sitting around a bowl of Doritos watching old Kids in the hall skits are not really likely to be out committing violent crimes. A few hours later they are no longer buzzed and go on with life as if it had never happened. So much for Nancy Reagan and her misguided attempt to suppress drug use by likening it to lycanthropy; it was never going to work. One little bite and you are a werewolf forever, cursed to have no control over your life and the cycles of addiction.

Various Tragic Unintentional Consequences of Misguided US Anti-Marijuana Policy

The collateral damage to this idiocy was that after seeing many drugs do not have hugely adverse and dangerous side effects, a lot of people got hooked on drugs that really WERE dangerous, because, after all, the Public Service Announcements

Seth Rogen- Living Proof that smoking pot doesn’t necessarily make you broke and lazy

about pot couldn’t have been more laughably wrong. Caffeine is a more potent and dangerous ‘gateway drug’. The brisk sales of super dangerous 5 Hour Energy Drink, heart hammering Red Bull and of course the infamous Four Loko caffeinated canned booze drink that killed a few people. The Criminal Element Forget your innocuous buddy who knows someone and can get you an ounce for a killer price, he’s a white collar criminal at worst in most states depending on how much he is holding or using the federal mails (idiotic, UPS may steal your weed at worst, but it’s unlikely they’d call the cops in most cases). Think of your street dealers. Guys I used to meet on Jamaica Avenue in Hollis, Queens (home of LL Cool J and Run DMC, peace!) with nicknames like ‘Slice’, “Big Man”, ‘Donuts’, and my personal favorite “Whopper”. Whether he was extolling the size of his bags or just that he hung in front of Burger King is an open question only he can answer, wherever he is now, but that’s not the point. Street Dealers kill your property value. Pot dealers and

gruesome aftermath of drug murders in mexico

their relatively genteel clientele are tolerated until they give way to purveyors of more hardcore drugs and their mind mangled zombie slaves. It’s these kinds of drug deals that really need to be done away with. Legalization and some taxation are such a huge. The money spent suppressing an unstoppable demand as opposed to regulating and taxing it would be astronomical. Give half of it to medical research and we could probably cure AIDS! Beyond our borders, especially to the south, a violent drug war is being fought. While Canada boasts a low intensity old fashioned small to medium sized pot dealer spats, Mexico has a much bigger problem. The money thrown at this problem by our government to cut off supply for pot can never approach the amount of money and innovation being used by ruthless Mexican Drug Lords to circumvent the attempt to interdict their shipments. Some estimates have put the number of Mexico’s men women and children killed in drug related violence at least 50,000 in the last 3 years alone, with some estimates as high as 120,000 violent deaths in just six years under president Felipe Calderon. For comparison it took 8 years to lose that many people in Vietnam and those were armed, trained soldiers. America’s combined 21st century wars have been horrible but American casualties are nowhere near 50,000 dead. Were it even close the Afghan and Iraqi wars would have been won or abandoned quickly long ago, but I have addressed that in detail in past posts. The 8 some odd decade experiment in making marijuana illegal has been a failure. Aside from giving the FBI something to do while simultaneously feeding T-Shirt companies and rehab’s some money nothing was gained. In fact drug use became somewhat glamorized. It’s time for real responsible drug education as well as taxation and regulation. If the Netherlands can proudly have a building clearly labeled ‘Bureau of Prostitutes’ in one of the nicest parts of Amsterdam surely we can handle a similar government agency here quietly issuing tax stamps from Tempe Arizona.

Americans will always be overly puritanical but this aspect of our overly self-hating national outlook is so impractical that even members of prewar generations who were raised in complete fear of “Reefer Madness” want pot to be legal, they have seen too much proof it’s as ‘harmless’ as alcohol.

If the chaos legalization wreaks upon the current violent drug gangs running around our borders, throughout northern Mexico as well as every US city to one extent or another, is anything like what happened to the spats wearing, Chicago Sewing Machine sporting roaring 20’s mobsters when booze became legal again we can expect a near collapse of these dangerous, violent criminal entities. Then, if history repeats itself these organizations will become so cash poor and desperate for money they will play right into the hands of law enforcement. Deprived of any

These new Holiday Trees are all the rage in Washington and Colorado this year. Unlike most trees, these are SUPPOSed to burn…one bud at a time

way to generate, let alone produce any sort of respectable bribe money, these organizations will be all but gone within a decade. Smoke up Washington State. December 4, 2012, the First Day of the End of America’s fruitless “War on Drugs”. From here on in its 4:20/24/7. Amsterdam is still a cheaper flight from New York, so I am going to wait for the Colorado law to kick in to travel to smoke my first ever legal joint outside Amsterdam.